1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to enclosures for storing contaminated wearing apparel, such as clothing, and contaminated personal equipment utilized in the same environment in which the wearing apparel is contaminated, and particularly to wearing apparel and personal equipment utilized by fire fighters in the course of fighting fires.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A preliminary patentability and novelty search in connection with the instant invention has revealed the existence of the following United States patents:
______________________________________ 1,842,286 1,968,271 2,113,468 2,216,873 3,133,772 5,310,254 ______________________________________
While the patents listed provide a good insight into the condition of the art, none of the patents appear to disclose or even suggest the very real problem faced by fire fighters when they return to the firehouse or station following even a short bout with a stubborn fire of any kind of flammable material. The problems faced by fire fighters are multiplied and made more intense, requiring remedial action more quickly and extensively to decontaminate the fire fighters' bodies, their wearing apparel and the personal equipment used in fighting the fire, when it is known that the burning material has liberated or created toxic contaminants that saturate clothing and stick to personal equipment.
Frequently, to fight such fires, it is expedient, even necessary for the personal safety of the flue fighters, that they wear self-contained breathing apparatus and special protective clothing so as to protect their lungs and bodies from being seared by flames and hot fumes, and contaminated by toxins liberated by or created by the fire. When fire fighters return to the firehouse or station from such a fire, it is very important that they immediately decontaminate their bodies, their wearing apparel, and their personal equipment that might have been contaminated by toxic smoke, fumes and chemicals. Obviously, to decontaminate their bodies, the fire fighters must bathe quickly and thoroughly. To do so they must remove there wearing apparel and personal equipment and step into whatever bathing facilities are provided at the fire station.
One problem is that when contaminated wearing apparel and personal equipment is doffed by the fire fighter, it must immediately be sealed away from the interior environment in which the fire fighters live, including eating and sleeping quarters, lest that interior environment, left clean and uncontaminated when the fire fighters left to fight a fire, is unintentionally contaminated by toxins emanating from the doffed contaminated wearing apparel and personal equipment. It is unfortunate that in many fire stations, no provision is made for either sealing contaminated wearing apparel and personal equipment away from living quarters within the fire station, or taking procedural steps to decontaminate contaminated wearing apparel and equipment.
Accordingly, one of the important objects of the present invention is the provision of a locker within a fire station, the interior of the locker being sealed from the living quarters so that contaminants and toxins on wearing apparel and personal equipment stored therein cannot migrate from the interior of the locker into the living quarters of the fire station.
Another object of the invention is the provision within the living quarters of a fire station of a locker for contaminated wearing apparel and personal equipment that is sealed from the interior of the fire station but is vented to the atmosphere outside the fire station.
Yet another object of the invention is the provision within a fire station or other enclosed environment with which contaminated wearing apparel or personal equipment is doffed, of a storage locker that is sealed from the interior of the fire station or other enclosed environment, and which storage locker incorporates a duct system for forced ventilation of the interior of the sealed locker to the atmosphere exteriorly of the fire station or other enclosed environment so as to preclude the possibility of migration of contaminants from doffed wearing apparel into the uncontaminated interior of the fire station or other environment.
Providing a sealed enclosure, such as the locker above described, and providing forced ventilation of the interior of the locker to the outside atmosphere, will forcibly extract some contaminants and toxic gaases from wearing apparel hung within the locker, but will fail to extract contaminants embedded in the clothing. The reason for this failure is that most such ventilation systems merely circulate outside air through the locker, but do not usually provide a differential in pressure between the air being evacuated from the interior of the locker and the air being admitted and circulated within the interior of the locker. Accordingly, a still further object of the invention is the provision of a locker sealed from the interior environment within which it is located and that incorporates a ventilation system in which the interior volume within the locker is maintained at a pressure less than atmospheric whereby embedded contaminants and toxins are literally "out-gassed" from the wearing apparel into the low pressure interior of the locker and forcibly pumped out of the interior of the locker and dispersed into the a atmosphere exteriorly of the environment sought to be protected against contaminants and toxins.
It is not uncommon a fire stations to hang expensive contaminated protective clothing exteriorly of the fire station where it is subjected to ulta-violet degradation and additional particulate contamination. Accordingly, a still further object of the invention is the provision of a storage locker for protective clothing that simultaneously provides for "out-gassing" from the protective clothing of contaminants and toxins and which protects the clothing from ultra-violet degradation.
Frequently, protective clothing worn by fire fighters becomes wet either from fluids, such as water, or liquidous chemicals utilized to extinguish burning materials, or from perspiration generated by proximity to high heat and physical exertion. Accordingly, yet another object of the invention is the provision of a locker system that may be erected within and sealed from a protected and uncontaminated environment such as the interior of a fire station while providing means for forcibly circulating clean dry air through the interior of the locker to effectively dry moist clothing contained therein.
Still another object of the invention is the provision of a sealed locker structure that is modular in form, that provides separate isolated interior compartments for isolation of wearing apparel contaminated by different types of contamination to thereby prevent cross-contamination of such wearing apparel, and the provision of separate forced air ventilation of each separate compartment to the exterior atmosphere.
The invention possesses other objects and features of advantage, some of which, with the foregoing, will be apparent from the following description and the drawings. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiment illustrated and described but may be embodied in various forms within the scope of the appended claims.